Please also take a moment to add yourself to our email/master contact list database (it only takes a second, and will better help us organize our communications with you):Click Here to add yourself to our Master Contact List

Some updates on the ol’ Rail Yards Times…

RYM will operate on the 1st-4th Sundays, May-October 2015 from 9am-1pm. Sincere gratitude to all of Albuquerque, everyone who supported our 2014 season, and contributed to our 2015 planning and goals!

Sponsors, Partners and Volunteers

We are currently seeking sponsorships, partners and volunteers for our 2015 season! If you know any interested community partners or organizations, please ask them to email RailYardsMarket@gmail.com

Important Dates for Vendors:

Applications due: March 6th, 2015

Application Fee due: Within 24 hours of submitting application

April 1st: Responses will be sent out by this date

April 15th: Booth Fees due (if participating in May-July rotation(s))

April 17th: Vendor Orientation

July 26th: late season Artisan Booth Fees due (if participating in Aug-Oct rotation(s))

:: FULL STEAM AHEAD ::

Again, thank YOU for your patience amazing contributions to our successful 2014 season. The community power and passion behind this project has been astounding and beautiful. We couldn’t have done any of this without YOU!

Thank You

The RYM team would like to send out sincere appreciation to everyone who came out and shared their support at these meetings, and throughout our growth spurt over 2014 to provide for ABQ. We are so grateful to the respected Council and RY Advisory Board for their considerations and guidance. Negotiations will continue, so please be patient with the organizers and the City as we come to conclusion that we all feel creates a positive experience for Albuquerque. We know we can work together to nurture this incubator of our local future. The horizon is bright.

We are currently in negotiation with the City of ABQ about our 2015 season. Thank you for your patience as we ensure a bright and strong season for the community. Please check back in February for more information about 2015 applications.

We’ve done it! 28 solid weeks of arts, crafts, music, food, learning, and community cohesion. THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT! If you were there for the first Rail Yards Market on May 4th, you remember the sight of the other 8000 people filling this amazing space with the buzz of infinite possibility.

From the hard work of so many, we have realized some of those possibilities, but, really, we’re just getting started (yes, we will be having a 2015 season in our beloved Blacksmith Shop)!

Whether you’ve been a regular or have yet to discover the wonder of this event, let’s get together and wrap up our premier season with the celebration it deserves.

Personal Perspectives

Photo: Bruce Hatton

We at the RYM would like to thank all of the wonderful volunteers and organizers who unabashadly gave of their time, life-energy, resources and intellectual capital to reclaim this empty space. The learning curve was steep, the ambitions great, the work difficult but the desire was unrelenting. With the added help of Sponsors, Vendors, Partners and every day folks we were able to create an event that has become close to our heart, in Barelas, the heart of the city. —READ MORE—

Check out these Jack-o-lanterns from Food Revolution Community: Oranges with fresh fruit inside! As parents, we want the healthiest options for our kids everyday. On Halloween, we need to juggle our desire for a balanced diet for our children, with their desire for sweets! After a quick web-search here are some options:

Dark Chocolate is rich in Anti-Oxidants!

Chocolate dipped figs are rich in nutrition!

Soy Treats are full of protien!

Honey and/or sesame candy contain only 7 grams of sugar*

Pretzel Snacks!

Join us this Sunday, October 26 as we celebrate “Healthy Halloween” with tricks, treats, and more… -READ MORE-

“In the Fall of 1868 construction began in Topeka, Kansas on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe line under the leadership of Cyrus K. Holliday. The Santa Fe was operating 28 miles of track in 1869. The line from Topeka to Atchison was completed in early 1872 and entered Colorado by the end of December. The line opened to Albuquerque in March 1880.” From the Wheels Museum Website.

This Sunday we honor the Albuquerque Rail Yards grounds, workers, and neighborhood folks. The Rail Yards were a major hub of activity up until the 1940’s. Come down with your photos and stories about the Rail Yards space and structures. The Rail Yards Market along with the WHEELS Museum are revitalizing this space, come be a part of it on Sunday, October 19 from 9am to 3pm.

Come on down after the International Balloon Fiesta to the Rail Yards Market. We are celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day and will have educators, entertainers and vendors to expose visitors to elements of indigenous cultures. Join us from 9am to 3pm on Sunday October 12. Click here for more details.

Each year the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta attracts hundreds of thousands of folks from all over the world! Balloon enthusiasts fill the streets of this beautiful city, while hot-air balloons add more colors to the already magnificent color palette of it’s mesmerizing sky! Every Balloon Fiesta seems more breathtaking than the previous and a visit to Albuquerque is not complete without a visit to the International Balloon Fiesta Museum/Park. Every year Albuquerque seems more vibrant, with an increasing number of attractions and must-experience venues!

The Heart of the City

Located in beautiful Barelas, the Rail Yards Market is part of that ever-expanding list of must-experience venues but it is not easily classifiable. It is much more than a market but rather a meeting place, where a vortex of sights, sounds, aromas and tastes congregate, every Sunday from 9am to 3pm! Artists of all mediums converge with educators and a dedicated community of volunteers to create a truly one-of-a-kind experience! It is truly a world-class event where patrons can shop from local growers, listen to amazing music, partake in mindful stretching, learn from dedicated educators, and be exposed to cutting-edge art while being exposed to ideas regarding sustainability and a reintroduction to traditional ways of living.

The harvest, a time to collect the gifts given to us by nature and brought about by the labor of our dedicated growers. Harvest Festivals are celebrated world-wide such as Thanksgiving in the US and Canada. Many celebrations are an amalgamation of pagan rituals and the dominant religion. The image above depicts the Harvest Celebration in Poland.

Local Growers

Locally, we have many dedicated growers that avoid genetically modified organisms (GMOs). GMO‘s have been shown to be unhealthy and are banned in over 60 countries including the European Union and Japan. It makes obvious sense to shop from our friends and neighbors because it benefits our community economically, nutritionally and socially. At the RYM we feature many local growers that use the Rio Grande to bring us sustenance. Come down and support them and celebrate the most life-giving contribution to our society.

Programming

“Imagine all the people living life in peace…You may say I am a dreamer but I am not the only one, I hope someday you will join us and the world will live as one” – John Lennon

International Day of Peace at the UN (video below)

The words of this John Lennon song, Imagine (originally released in 1971), still resonate today. Unfortunately we still have wars scarring our planet at each corner. There is still violence being enacted upon folks on every continent and in every country. We also are subject to economic violence in the form of growing popularity of wage slavery among corporate strategists. Every year, on September 21, since 1984, the world is called upon to take a moment to consider peace: International Peace Day/World Peace Day.

“Imagine all the people sharing the all the world…”

Peace at the Rail Yards Market

At the Rail Yards Market (RYM) we celebrate peace by creating a space where folks from all walks of life within our community, (local merchants, artists, entertainers, vendors, craftsmen, growers, volunteers, organizers…) can occupy for a few hours and feel a kinship among each other. We will be having our own private and public moments to celebrate and promote peace. We hope you join us:

Anyone old enough to remember the 1998 movie, Night at the Roxbury will surely remember how the lead characters played by Chris Kattan and Will Ferrell dance ridiculously to the Haddaway song with the title, “What is Love.” But really, what is love? Have you ever thought about it? I have.

With all due respect to everyone’s faith, paradigm, culture, public and personal beliefs (or lack thereof), I believe and teach my 7 year old daughter that God is Love. But what does that mean? A quick perusal on Merriam Websters Online Dictionary comes up with 9 definitions (not to mention all the sub-definitions). Definition number 4 is closest to my personal definition of Love, “unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another.” Personally I would replace: the good of another with the good of all.

A Labor of Love

The Rail Yards Market have been a labor of love for all that have been involved in taking it from idea to reality. Fueled by our desire to bring life back to the Rail Yards, and inspired to make our community a more vibrant one, volunteers from all walks of life spend their week planning, meeting and working together to make the RYM the wonderful nexus of our city that it has become. On Sunday mornings, we gather at 6:00 am, look each other in the eye and face-down a 11 hour day together! If that is not Love, then I don’t know what is!

“Today is a day to celebrate the work in NM that is love-funded, love-inspired, and which uses love as a framework for healing our world and communities. We feel that money/grants/power, etc. lack the transformative power that love holds to address the injustices we find in our state and world. We want to inspire and encourage you today to see the beauty and power that love has to heal our world, hoping that by us celebrating love today we will begin to find new ways tomorrow and beyond to orient our work likewise!”

Love Inspired Educators

At the Fine Arts Pop-Up Zone we are joined by the VECINOS Artist Collective. VECINOS are collaborative of New Mexican artists who value educational and community driven practice. Our mission is to complement and enhance the activities of organizations in Albuquerque and beyond through participatory artistic collaborations. We believe that investment in the collective well-being of neighborhoods and cities creates a better world. At the Children’s Zone Super Artists/Educator Stephanie Galloway will be guiding the kiddos on love-motivated collage making.

The Traditional Zone – NHI, RAICES, and Kalpulli Teocalli Ollin will join the Rail Yards for Celebrating Love Day in our Traditional Zone bringing with them a cherished community group of Curanderas and Traditional healers and will include an interactive education on traditional/ceremonial tobacco in the spirit of connecting art and culture. Live Arts will feature Patrick CloudFace Burnham will be joining the RYM in the Live Art Zone. His dynamic and bold ‘Celebration of Life in Painting’ is sure to bring smiles to all!